In Yingdu, the capital city of the state of Chu, a man put a piece of white plaster¹（石膏，灰泥） of the size of a fly on top of his own nose, and asked an artisan（工匠） named Shi to back it off with an axe².

 

The artisan brandished³ the axe with sound of whistling⁴ wind, it turned out that the plaster had been knocked down without hurting the man's nose. The Ying man hadn't showed any fear on his face, not even blinkered his eyes.

 

King Songyuanjun heard of this story, and asked the artisan to perform it again. The artisan Shi said, "Yes, I did do that before. But the man who could let me perform that skill died long ago."

 

楚国的京城郢都有一个人在自己的鼻尖上抹了一点像苍蝇翅膀大小的一块白粉，让一个叫石的匠人用斧头把它砍下来。

 

匠石抡起带着呼呼风声的斧头砍下去。结果白粉完全除掉了，而鼻子却一点儿没有受伤。郢人不仅脸上未变，连眼睛都没有眨一下。

 

宋元君听说这事后，让匠人给自己再表演一次。匠石回答说：“我确实曾经砍过，但是能让我施展技术的配合默契的那个人如今已经死去很久了。”

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